The reason many dxers spent alot of time and money was to climb the dxcc ladder, not to stomp on smaller stations. In fact, there was more respect for others back in the day; you would make ONE solid qso with a dxpedition and if you weren't 100% sure a "backup" contact. This gave a chance to others
Getting to Honor Roll, and #1 Honor Roll, was very, very, difficult with simple antennas; yes, I know it can be done like W2NJ (the original W2NJ).
Also, there wasn't the concept of the mega-dxpedition. So, dxers typically had a path of station upgrades so they could work the really difficult dxcc's.
If you want to be a "dx-er" in the traditional sense work Crozet on cw or ssb to get a feel how hard it was in the past (as if I recall correctly there never has been a dxpedition there).
I get why the big guns hate FT8, they spent alot of time and money on a station to be able to stomp on the little guys and be on of the first in the log of the rare DX.
Gino